Saturday Afternoon News Roundup

 

• Hey, Karl Rove!  I gotcher voter fraud rigggght heeeeeeere.  (Oh, I forgot:  It’s OK if a Republican does it.  Especially if it’s a hyper-conservative nutbar of a congresscritter like Patrick McHenry of North Carolina.) More on McHenry and his peripatetic roomie here.
• A judge in the UK Central Criminal Court (aka “The Old Bailey”) in London is trying to suppress the story that George W. Bush called for the bombing of the fiercely independent Al-Jazeera TV station because he couldn’t get it under his control.
• The Shiite-dominated Iraqi parliament is on the verge of passing a motion to force US troops out of Iraq.  The scuttlebutt is that it might be watered down, but the mere fact that they’re discussing a timetable for US withdrawal is momentous.  You would think that this would lead every single American news broadcast, but you’d be wrong:  The story comes to us courtesy of Yahoo!News in Singapore.

Saturday Garden Blogging

Don’t let Bush blow up the planet while I’m outside planting flowers, okay?

Milestones in the Annals of Hypocrisy: WaPo on Edwards

I have a difficult time reading Jamison Foser’s newsletter for Media Matters because he is so d–ned good:

 On Monday, The Washington Post ran a front-page article by Alec MacGillis purportedly about John Edwards’ “signature issue” — poverty. …

But relatively few of the 2,300 words the Post devoted to the article actually explained the logistics of how Edwards’ proposals would work, or detailed the arguments advocates of the policies make on their behalf. Instead, much of the article consisted of broad assertions that they won’t work. …

Maybe that’s because policy experts are unanimous that Edwards’ proposals wouldn’t work. No, that can’t be the case … Indeed, the Post article prompted quick responses from at least two of those people. …The point isn’t that Bernstein and Anrig (and, by extension, Edwards) are right and the experts cited by the Post are wrong. The point is that the Post didn’t bother to include the views of experts like Bernstein and Anrig who think Edwards’ proposals are good ones.

Foser continues a devastating take at how the media have propagandized the American public.

• The WaPo gave the cost of Edwards’ healthcare proposal and said he would have to raise taxes, but they didn’t otherwise say what the proposal was.
• The WaPo falsely accused Edwards of misdeeds in the sale of his house.
• The WaPo criticized Edwards for consulting for a hedge fund, as though that prohibited him from caring about the poor.

CNN, FOX, National Journal… a host of media outlets use the same set of talking points against a candidate. About when are the American people going to wake up to the fact that there is class warfare going on, and the media are hostile to most Americans?